Nice review. I actually like this cooler especially for its compact size, though I would never use it on such a power hungry card!

However, I'm wondering if attaching some of the available heatsinks to the cooling plate itself (and on the back of the card, over the naked transistors and anything else) will make any good to the performance, especially regarding VRM cooling. I remember that on my old HD4850 + S1, VRM temperatures went about 10Â° down after sticking something on the back, so there is an actual benefit. And by bringing them to a lower temperature, the card's PCB would become cooler, so it may even have a positive effect on GPU temps.

Would it be possible to flip the fan around to blow down toward the card? It might be quieter that way, and it might even be cooler?

page 5:
Now you may be wondering if you can flip the fan around and blow it onto the GPU. With some effort the wire clips holding the fan can be removed, but simply reversing the fan's orientation isn't possible. Like most fans it doesn't have struts on the back, so the blades and hub on the backside rub up against the heatsink.

comment 1: would be nice to see how it actually performed on a card that was less hot. maybe a 5xxx card. maybe someone will have the time to run that...

comment 2: mounting the fan to the out side would be pointless. what we need is to convince Scythe to come out with a revision 2 of this cooler, with the antire cooler turned around. they would need to swap the fan recese to the outside, and have the fan blow down. maybe add a few mm for better airflow.

Would it be possible to flip the fan around to blow down toward the card? It might be quieter that way, and it might even be cooler?

page 5: Now you may be wondering if you can flip the fan around and blow it onto the GPU. With some effort the wire clips holding the fan can be removed, but simply reversing the fan's orientation isn't possible. Like most fans it doesn't have struts on the back, so the blades and hub on the backside rub up against the heatsink.

I know you've said this but there are two other reviews of the cooler that I have read, at a german site called Dexgo and one hosted on Fudzilla where both managed to flip the fan and found that there was a huge difference in the results. They even mention that Scythe intended to ship future Setsugens with the fan oriented to blow on the card as it's by far the better choice.

It ought to be fairly easy to put the fan on the top blowing down on the card with some spacers, like some kind of rubber or foam, or simply use another fan with struts. That way the VRM's should also benefit from the cooler air from the fan.

Good test. Congratulations. However, it isn't clear to me whether you could or couldn't test it in a closed case. When I look at this picture, I'm not sure you were able to close the side-panel on the P182 case.

Would it be possible to flip the fan around to blow down toward the card? It might be quieter that way, and it might even be cooler?

page 5: Now you may be wondering if you can flip the fan around and blow it onto the GPU. With some effort the wire clips holding the fan can be removed, but simply reversing the fan's orientation isn't possible. Like most fans it doesn't have struts on the back, so the blades and hub on the backside rub up against the heatsink.

I know you've said this but there are two other reviews of the cooler that I have read, at a german site called Dexgo and one hosted on Fudzilla where both managed to flip the fan and found that there was a huge difference in the results. They even mention that Scythe intended to ship future Setsugens with the fan oriented to blow on the card as it's by far the better choice.

Same thing in this review by the German site HT4U, and they too claim that the fan will be flipped around in subsequent shipments from Scythe.

Most aftermarket graphics card coolers position the fan(s) on the outside of the heatsink blowing toward the GPU core and circuit board similar to downblowing CPU heatsinks. The Setsugen is the first GPU cooler we've come across that actually does the opposite. It has a single 120mm fan underneath the main fin mass blowing outward through the heatsink (downward in a typical ATX case). This seems like a flawed approach as heat rises so in theory the exhausted air will simply drift back up toward the GPU.

Working with ventilation for over 3 years, I've learned that this is not an issue when you control the airflow in such a small space. As soon as you introduce any means of controlling the airflow, especially this close to the heatsink, the natual airflow in heated air won't really stand a chance even against the slowest fan. The fins are also sitting too tightly to take advantage of the natural rising of heated air.

From what I can see, the cooler design also seems deeply depandant on not using the stock cooling plate, due to the fan's closeness to the PCB aswell as it's air intake-orientation. I wonder if the fan's orientation would have helped cool down the PCB and other parts more efficiently due to the air being forced close along the PCB and heatsinks. I also believe that using the cooling plate might have caused a higher turbulence and thus more noise from the fan, due to the cooling plate blocking a lot of space that would not have been occupied if using the supplied heatsinks. Yes I do indeed agree that the results almost certainly would be a lot hotter VRMs, but I do believe that it's important we give the design a fair trial so to speak. I'm very interested in the results of dropping the cooling plate would be. I'm pretty sure it would be quite good in a HTPC where space is always tight, and where you don't use the hottest or biggest GFX card.

Would you guys be able to do quick re-test to look for a change in the results?

Would it be possible to flip the fan around to blow down toward the card? It might be quieter that way, and it might even be cooler?

page 5: Now you may be wondering if you can flip the fan around and blow it onto the GPU. With some effort the wire clips holding the fan can be removed, but simply reversing the fan's orientation isn't possible. Like most fans it doesn't have struts on the back, so the blades and hub on the backside rub up against the heatsink.

I can definitively say that that you can flip the fan so that it blows towards the card. I currently have a Setsugen on my 5770 that I successfully reoriented the fan on with no interference with the heatsink.

I can definitively say that that you can flip the fan so that it blows towards the card. I currently have a Setsugen on my 5770 that I successfully reoriented the fan on with no interference with the heatsink.

I wouldn't be supriced to hear that. I always felt that this review was quite sloppy, even if the product wasn't that "interesting" to begin with.

I'm surprised that a site as competent as SPCR couldn't just invert the fans with the assistance of a shim or some rubber grommets, etc.

Wonder if there's any way to tell whether it could fit on the GTX 470 or GTX 480 - their two-layer cooling means that, theoretically, you could use this cooler just to cool the GPU core (not the whole card).

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